Advanced Leadership

Induction Camp 

Starting the Tamaki Service Academy has been a great experience. Now the term is nearly over and we just finished coming back from the Induction Camp our first camp this year. This camp took two weeks and took place at Waiouru at the Army Military Base where we were put in the 3rd platoon with the other Academies  Glenfield and Northland colleges.

During this term we went to the Induction camp, It was cool as, but before that, I was  nerves, because I was told it was going to be a challenge but I felt like a passenger when we entered the camp. Anything they through at me I just did it whether it was hard or not. The camp was a challenge, physically and emotionally. We all reckon we were all pushing ourselves to achieve our leadership goals, by doing that we all stepped out of our comfort zone learning how to use different leadership styles during activities, even if it was hard or not we held our heads up.

Two things I would do if I was to go back to the Induction camp, I would push myself harder and get better understanding of different leadership styles.  I would do all the activities that I missed because of my injury. I would also want to learn more skills and try to make myself and others look forward to learning new things like development in leadership in demonstrated delegating authority, situational leadership and demonstrated collaborative leadership. During this camp, I have developed a new thing for myself, for example, confidence, motivation, effective communication and self-betterment, which really help when working with others.  This will help me become better at all the leadership styles. I also need to become more of a participant and start looking forward to the challenges and do it better by pushing myself till I get really injured. People might say that sounds wrong pushing myself until I drop but I don't want excuses for not training nor pushing myself I feel like I'm letting me and others down. 

When we started joining the other academies which were Glenfield and Northland Colleges it started off great because it felt normal. We all bonded and got through the camp by motivating and encouraging each other. The staff were really helpful when doing all the activities, pushing all of us to reach our goals just seeing that  I witnessed a leadership principle shown by the staff and that's why I'm grateful for them for helping.

An example for this is staff, Johnson. He pushed us to the limits and didn't want anybody to be left behind, he showed support when we do activities and motivation this was shown when we did the cross country course which was a challenge for most of us, he would be behind all of us and wouldn't let none of us stops running, unless we’re really injured. Not only he encouraged us he made sure we finished the cross country making us feel like we achieved something but also made sure we were safe. This helped me learn how to be a supportive leader towards my academy comrades, by supporting them and encouraging them when they need to be pushed to their limits like staff Johnson showed me. His leadership styles were on point by being supportive and having demonstrated delegating authority.

Going through all the activities in the Induction camp has been a physical and mental challenge. Before I had no idea of what to do for physical training, I had no motivation for it nor encourage to do physical training. Going through the Cross Country had me dying to stop but what staff Johnson taught me that feeling pain or wanting to stop is all in my head. I can mentally make myself push hard, for example, he told me this “me wanting to stop is my body in pain, but being in pain is just another weakness leaving your body, your body doesn't make you stop your mind makes you stop. Whatever your mind tells your body, your body will do it, that's why you gotta keep telling yourself to keep pushing forward and to never quit”. This helps me learn a few things for becoming a leader, by helping others to better themselves and building their confidence, it will also help me to demonstrated delegating authority which is a type of leadership style that I need to learn.

A great example of teamwork was when I and the team did the 20x30 tent. The objective to Safely assemble and disassemble the 20x30 tent in the allocated time of 90 minutes to set up and 30 minutes to take down. We as a team had planned out what we had to do. In our discussion we planned out suitable jobs for one another, for example, we had Ronnie Hood as our safety leader, he would have to help out in the safest way if possible and did his job great asking us if we are good, checking if we were safe, he showed supportive leadership. Another leader was Tuni Tau'ataina, she was our over all leader and took charge of our timing also I would say that this was the most important job because she had to check if things were done correctly and making sure everyone was doing their part on doing the tent, also giving them jobs if they did not have anything to do, she is great at being a leader it seemed natural since we all just met her at the camp. We had a leader for the framing team which was Prince Scanlan who made sure all the poles and knuckles went to the right place, also making sure people weren't mucking about with the poles. He showed good leadership and authority. Lastly we had a leader of the lacing team Tyla Baker, she made sure that the lacing team  were lacing the roof of the canvas first so they didn’t close off the corners before it becomes difficult to pull over the framing but she also had to double check that was all sides laced up were tied off correctly so it will never come out. She showed great leadership by being supportive and coaching others. During this activity I felt like that the team did an amazing job because of our leaders we did not set up the tent on time but what was way better is doing this helped us become closer as an academy and made us more like a family and I'm proud to be part of it.

During the camp, I wasn't really a leader I was just a passenger throughout the whole camp but I should try to be better next time and demonstrate more leadership and become more confident this is one thing I should have worked on during the Induction Camp.Another way I could be able to demonstrate situational leadership are in these four leadership styles: Directive, Coaching, Supporting and Delegating but personally, I think I did one of the leadership styles which was supportive leadership styles. 

Supportive leadership styles

This type of leadership is used to help others get more out of themselves, another way of saying it is motivation and encouragement is the key. For me I felt like I showed this when we were doing the Cross Country run, I saw one of the trainee struggling and so I went to go motivate him to keep going. I pushed him and encouraged him mostly I was making jokes to get the pain in our legs out of our minds, but we made it over the finished line and I was proud of him and me because we were both dying but I wanted to stick with him until we finish the 5k run this helped us achieve our goals by pushing our limits and comfort zone . This helps me keep my confidence up and physically and mentally push myself and others.

After all, this, going through the Induction camp meeting new people I reckon we all did our best and all became greater leaders, I made new friends which became my new family, I hope that all of us can become lifetime mates one day. We all got through the camp together and created a great bond as like Prince Scanland always says if “one of us are going to die in this camp we all going to die together as brothers“